What a week, not only is summer starting where I am, but I have also been working on getting things ready for the upcoming release for Habari, though things may change from where the snapshot currently is.

Still, it is nice to be able to continue on with Detective Conan (Case Closed). So far, I have covered episodes from FUNimation's third season case by case, until only two cases, which are each their own episode (3 separate episodes, according to FUNimation's count), remain. Today, I will be reviewing Case Closed episode 77 (Detective Conan episode 75).

As I have given a series synopsis in an earlier post, I will not go over it again.

Jimmy and Richard have gone to play mahjong.

However, when one of the four players leave, the relaxing night is ruined when the replacement is found dead in his office, after saying that he would join on the phone.

Now, out of the suspects, who happen to be employees, Jimmy must find out who the culprit was and how the victim was killed.

I am not too sure about this one. The case was setup somewhat well. Also, not a whole lot was obvious, except for the actions that the suspects took. That is what fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction expect because that is what allows one to try and figure things out. That is how the fun is created in these kinds of works after all. There were also some funny scenes present. The funniest though is that Rachel claims that she will never start gambling, when she tries to take Jimmy home, but then turns out to be an expert in mahjong. Rachel seems to have a talent for gambling, since mahjong is not the only game we see her play in this series. What makes it even funnier is when the case is over, Rachel takes over Richard's seat at video mahjong. I am not sure about you guys, but Rachel seems well on her way to getting a gambling addiction, like her father. Another nice thing was that it was pretty faithful to its manga counterpart. Everything that I saw here also happened in the manga counterpart as well. I still think it is funny that Japanese seem to be more faithful to cases that have little important and alter cases that are very important, but unfortunately, because FUNimation stopped at episode 123 (Japanese count) and I have quicker access to the manga than fansubs, as DMCA takedowns can make them harder to find, I cannot really say if they are faithful in every episode after this point, especially since I have not seen every episode in 124+ (Japanese count) range. Outside of that, I cannot really think of anything that I liked. The fact that things were not very obvious and the fact that the case was pretty faithful to its manga counterpart, as well as the fact that seeing Rachel being an expert gambler was funny, made this episode pretty decent.

Although the episode did have some nice things, there are certainly some issues. First, the next episode preview was not exactly right, as usual. Here, however, the confusion from out of order releases is worse. Not only is the next episode in the previewed stated not the next episode, but it also is not even considered part of the third season set. In the next episode preview featured here, it states that the next episode is The Revengeful Robber. However, this episode is not present in the third season set. I know this because of the fact that I actually own the fourth season set, and MagicBox confirms that it is not in this set. Because of this fact, as well as the fact that I stated that Phantom Thief 1412 is the last episode of FUNimation's third season in my review of episode 74 (Japanese count) and that FUNimation's next episode previews have been right about the next episode when they released them out of order, I have no doubt that FUNimation corrected this in the actual third season set. Another thing that I did not like was the fact that this case was dull. It was more interesting than the fillers have been so far, but this is not what I would call one of Gosho Aoyama's best cases. Fortunately, Gosho does not disappoint me as much as the fillers have so far, so I cannot really complain too much. While the case was not really that interesting, the fact that an episode from the next season set causes greater confusion does more damage.

Despite the negatives, the humor present in this episode made it worth watching. I recommend fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction to skip this because the case is dull. As for fans of Detective Conan (Case Closed), I would recommend this because the humor makes up for the dull case. As for everyone else, I think this would serve as a good introduction to the series, but probably not a good introduction to the detective, mystery, and crime fiction genres in general.

What are your thoughts on Case Closed episode 77? Do you agree or disagree with my views? Do you have anything to add? Feel free to comment.

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